Tesla says Chicago's first 50 Semis are en route. The buyer is HMD Trucking, a diesel fleet of 650-plus trucks paying about $300,000 a truck. Here's the deal, the specs, and what it says about Tesla's Nevada ramp.
Photo: Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
For most of its nine-year life, the Tesla Semi has been a truck you read about more than one you saw. That is starting to change in an unlikely place. On Wednesday, Tesla's official Semi account on X posted a photo of four trucks at sunset with the caption "Hello Windy City," and a line that would have sounded like a promise a year ago: "Chicago's first 50 Semis en route for delivery."
Tesla did not name the buyer. The order belongs to HMD Trucking, a family-owned carrier based in the Chicago area that runs a fleet of more than 650 diesel trucks. HMD ordered 50 Semis in September in a deal its owner has valued at about $15 million. Fifty trucks is a small number for an industry that measures fleets in thousands. For Tesla's Semi program, it is a big batch for one customer, and a real test of whether the truck works for an ordinary diesel fleet in a cold-weather city.
HMD was founded in 1998 by Henry Malukas and his wife, Daiva. Reports put the fleet at between 650 and roughly 700 trucks across Illinois and Indiana, nearly all of them diesel. TeslaNorth reports that about 99% of those trucks are Peterbilts. This is not a startup with a green-freight pitch or a beverage giant buying a showcase fleet. It is a conventional carrier that made a business bet.
The first truck arrived on November 2. HMD says it is the first Tesla Semi registered in Illinois. Before signing, the company ran a Semi for more than 4,000 miles over the summer and averaged 1.74 kWh per mile, close to Tesla's claimed 1.7 kWh per mile at full weight.
"Tesla has been transparent with us regarding the capabilities of Semi every step of the way," HMD chief operating officer Michael Mahler said, according to Electrek and Drive Tesla Canada.
Malukas told MotorTrend the attraction is as much about maintenance as fuel. "It's an amazing product. It's efficient, low maintenance, also the fuel cost," he said, while conceding, "We don't have real numbers yet." At roughly $15 million for 50 trucks, HMD is paying about $300,000 per truck.
The first Semis will mostly run local routes around Chicago, where a truck returns to the yard at night. That is a sensible start. Tesla's own Megacharger network is still concentrated along I-5 and I-10 in the West, according to Electrek, so HMD is installing its own chargers in Chicago. HMD has said it aims to expand use "far beyond the Chicagoland market" over time.
Tesla published final production specs in February. Both versions are rated at a gross combination weight of 82,000 pounds, the standard US limit for a loaded tractor-trailer.
| Spec | Standard Range | Long Range |
|---|---|---|
| Range (at 82,000 lb) | About 325 miles | About 500 miles |
| Energy use | 1.7 kWh/mile | 1.7 kWh/mile |
| Drive power | Up to 800 kW | Up to 800 kW |
| Curb weight | Under 20,000 lb | About 23,000 lb |
| Charging | MCS 3.2, up to 60% in 30 min | MCS 3.2, peak 1.2 MW, up to 60% in 30 min |
| Reported price | About $260,000 | About $290,000 |
Tesla has never posted official pricing for the production truck. The figures above are quotes Electrek has reported from customers. In 2017, Tesla advertised the Semi at $150,000 for the shorter-range version and $180,000 for the 500-mile truck. MCS, the Megawatt Charging System, is the new industry standard connector for heavy trucks, so HMD's chargers are not a Tesla-only investment.
Tesla launched high-volume Semi production on September 24 at a new 1.8-million-square-foot plant next to Gigafactory Nevada in Sparks. Tesla says the factory is built for 50,000 trucks a year and builds the Standard Range, Long Range and a European version on one line. The launch came after a delay pushed volume production out of 2025, and seven years after the 2019 production date Tesla gave when it unveiled the truck.
How many trucks have come off that line since is unknown. Tesla's quarterly delivery reports count only passenger vehicles, and the company has not published a Semi ramp schedule. By Electrek's math, HMD's 50 trucks equal about 0.1% of the plant's yearly capacity.
HMD is one of several fleets that have placed sizable orders since Tesla started taking production commitments. According to Electrek's reporting:
There is other evidence of demand. California's truck voucher program received 965 applications for Semis between January 2025 and February 2026, Electrek reports.
For years the Semi's customers have been large corporations with their own sustainability goals and California fleets that could tap state money. HMD is different. It is a mid-size Midwest diesel carrier, and its owner describes the purchase as a cost decision. If its trucks hold up through a Chicago winter and the maintenance savings show up on the books, other regional carriers will notice. If they don't, those carriers will notice that too.
The delivery also gives Tesla something it has needed since September: visible proof that the Nevada line is shipping trucks in batches rather than one at a time. Fifty is a start. A factory built for 50,000 a year will need many more orders like this one.
"Chicago's first 50 Semis en route for delivery."
Tesla Semi on X, November 11, 2026The bottom line: Tesla is shipping 50 Semis to HMD Trucking, a Chicago diesel fleet of more than 650 trucks that is paying roughly $300,000 per truck. The first arrived November 2, and the rest are on the way. The trucks will start on local routes using HMD's own chargers. It is a modest number for a plant built for 50,000 trucks a year, but it is the clearest sign yet that the Semi is moving from pilot programs to regular fleets.
Related: Tesla's Q3 2026 deliveries · Aurora's second-generation driverless trucks · Tesla Superchargers come to Chicago
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